Training Performers

Twenty years ago, Dr Ericsson tried to prove it by training some ordinary laboratory volunteers up to prodigy-level performance in a number-memory task. Average people tend to have a “digit-span” of seven—in other words they can recall a string of seven random digits after hearing it read out once. But after a year’s practice, two of his particularly dedicated subjects were able to increase their digit-spans to lengths of 80 and 100.

Just as Dr Ericsson took people with no discernible talent and turned them into champions, so, in a fashion, did a Hungarian, Laszlo Polgar. When he began training his daughters, it was widely believed that women could not play serious tournament chess. But through a deliberate (and still continuing) psychological experiment, Dr Polgar and his wife created a trio of world-class chess champions out of their own daughters, overturning this prejudice.